Articles - Gangs

I remember riding with another L.A. Deputy Sheriff in an East Los Angeles gang car in 1975. To me, it was a privilege working with a special gang suppression unit, but my partner complained that he hated working gangs because it was useless. But he was wrong.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that "Because many situations which confront officers in the course of executing their duties are more or less ambiguous, room must be allowed for some mistakes on their part. But the mistakes must be those of reasonable men, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability." (Brinegar v. U.S.)

It has been argued that drug use is a victimless crime. But you’re a cop, and you know better. You’ve seen the overdosed victims, the worried looks on parents’ faces. You’ve also seen the neighborhood deterioration. You know that as drug dealers move in, citizens have a diminished feeling of safety and legitimate businesses move out. This creates an environment suitable not only for drug dealing, but also prostitution, burglaries, robberies, rapes, and murders.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared what he called a modern-day war on drugs, calling it "America's Public Enemy Number One." Since then, police departments all over the country have been fighting that war, without a foreseeable end.

When custodial interrogation is imminent and it's time to give the suspect a Miranda warning, what exactly do you have to say? The answer is, nothing exactly. The U.S. Supreme Court, which created the necessity of a warning of rights and a waiver as prerequisites to the prosecutorial use of a statement obtained through custodial interrogation, has never held that any precise wording is required.

Simply put, the more information you have in a case, the better your chances of solving it. While this is common knowledge to most officers, we tend to forget that using field contacts is one of the easiest ways of gaining intelligence in our own cities.

By the most conservative estimates, there are more than 12 million illegal aliens in this country. All but the most liberal Americans and those who own large industries that benefit from illegal alien labor at ridiculously low wages believe that this is a real problem.

Sometimes a schoolyard scuffle is just a simple fight. Sometimes it’s a clear cry for help from a kid battling bigger demons at home. And sometimes it portends more serious violence from a disturbed, future-felon-in-the-making.

Yes! Please rush me my FREE TRIAL ISSUE of POLICE magazine and FREE Officer Survival Guide with tips and tactics to help me safely get out of 10 different situations.

Just fill in the form to the right and click the button to receive your FREE Trial Issue.

If POLICE does not satisfy you, just write "cancel" on the invoice and send it back. You'll pay nothing, and the FREE issue is yours to keep. If you enjoy POLICE, pay only $25 for a full one-year subscription (12 issues in all). Enjoy a savings of nearly 60% off the cover price!